No More Secrets
by sleeplessinatlanta
Summary: B/B two-shot post Bond in the Boot just because I couldn't stop thinking about the irony of that little conversation under the sink. Angsty for sure, but still all about BB! COMPLETE.
1. Confession

Disclaimer: Don't own Bones. Sadly.

**Confession  
**

* * *

He'd only taken two bites of his mac and cheese before she couldn't hold back the words anymore.

"You've been lying to me for months." The accusation slashed through the air and hit him with all the impact of a perfectly aimed bullet.

"_What?_" His spoon clattered on his plate as the words reverberated in the silence. Booth felt all the air leave his lungs and when Brennan looked at her partner and saw him go pale she knew she was right.

"_For months_," she hissed, gathering the anger around her and pushing off the table. "No secrets between us, right, Booth?" She could practically taste the bitterness as she hurled accusations at him. "You are supposed to be my partner, you are supposed to trust me, you are supposed to be the one person who would never lie to me."

Booth also got up from the table and faced her, almost helpless in the face of her anger. Because she was right, so right. He'd lied, there _were_ secrets between them, one BIG one, in fact, which he was terrified to confess. And so he had been living a lie for months, pushing her away in sheer self-preservation, even as he needed her closer.

"You said you'd never betray me," Brennan whispered and although she was trying to hold on to the anger, the hurt and confusion were starting to punch through.

"And I never will," he swore, taking a step toward her.

"Then what do you call months of lying, Booth?" She could feel her voice rising as she suddenly fluctuated back to anger at the way he was oozing sincerity with those damn brown eyes of his. But she wasn't going to fall victim to those eyes, so she took a step in his direction and poked him violently in the chest. "What did you think? That I'm so clueless about people, so horrible at picking up external cues that I wouldn't notice you've been keeping something from me?" Her finger drilled into him as her anger escalated. "You have got five minutes to explain yourself, or I swear to god, Booth, I …"

"Bones," he interrupted, grabbing her poking finger before she could tear a hole into him. "It's not that simple, Bones."

"Yes, it is," she insisted, trying to pull her finger away, but he only gripped tighter. "You told me there were no secrets between us but there are. Something's different, _you_ are different and I don't want to be lied to anymore."

"Bones …" he pleaded, trying to maintain some self-control because he could feel everything he had tried to restrain over the past few months, _hell,_ _the past few years_, bubble up in a desperate attempt to spill over.

"Do you want a different partner?" Her words punched him in the stomach, sparking a dangerous combination of anger and fear he could not control.

"Is that a threat?" Booth growled, tightening his hand on the finger he still had imprisoned.

"What? No, I'm just wondering whether you even want to be my partner anymore." Her voice accusatory when she said, "This is the first time you've agreed to dinner in weeks, you don't pass by for lunch, you barely even look at me, it's like suddenly you can't even stand to be around me. What the hell's going on?"

"Of course I want to be your partner," he immediately responded. "There's nothing wrong, I've just been …" He tried to deflect just like he had been for weeks, but she was done taking it.

"No!" It was her turn to growl, "Don't you dare lie to me or I _will_ go to Cullen and demand a new partner, Booth, and that's not a threat."

"It sure as hell sounds like a threat, Bones," he practically snarled. Releasing her finger, he gripped her wrists in his hands and jerked her against him. "Sometimes we need secrets."

"Not between us," she replied immediately, even though his actions shocked her.

"No?" His eyes burned her and his words left her breathless. "You just need to know every damn thing, don't you?" He leaned so close to her face, she could feel his breath on her lips. "What's going on, Bones, is that you are right, I can barely stand to be around you." Unable to help himself, Booth delicately traced her bottom lip with his tongue. "I can't stand to be around you anymore without touching you, without needing you, without imagining that you are mine."

"Because I know, _I know_, it was just a dream, Bones, but oh damn, every time I close my eyes I can feel you, I can smell you, I can fucking taste you ." He ran his lips over her stunned faced, closing his eyes and breathing her in. "And I want it to be real, I've wanted it so damn badly and for so long that now it's _all _I can think about. So yeah, I guess you could say I've been keeping secrets. So many goddamn secrets, Bones, and all revolving around you and all the things I want to do to you. "

Opening his eyes, he looked at her; she looked frozen in place and he couldn't read a single emotion on her face. "Yeah, I've been keeping secrets," he repeated softly. "But not anymore, right?"

Letting go of her wrists, he took a step back and his throat closed up at the blank look on her face. Booth knew he had to get out of here before he lost it; before she devastated him with her cool logic and rationality.

"Next time, you better be sure you want to know the answers before you ask the questions, Bones."

He walked out, knowing he would have to deal with the consequences tomorrow, but tonight he was going straight home to his best bottle of scotch.


	2. Endgame

Disclaimer: Don't own Bones

A/n: All right, I realized that this story got way too many reviews asking for a resolution for me to leave it unfinished. I decided to do it now since I am unsure of what will happen to my muse once the new episodes air.

For some reason, it feels as if this is the most angsty, heartbreaking chapter I've ever written, I'm not quite sure why. In any case, this IS the conclusion to this, so I hope you like :)

**Endgame  


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**

He ignored the pounding at his door, until she yelled, "Open up, Booth, I know you're there!"

_Great_. Looked like he was going to have to deal with his partner now, without the benefit of alcohol to dull out the worst of whatever was about to come.

"What do you want, Bones?" he asked tiredly, opening the door. She gave him a slight shove out of the way and waltzed right in.

"What do I want?" She whirled around to face him in disbelief. "You … you can't just say stuff like that and then walk out, Booth!"

"What did you want me to do?" he asked, his voice strangely calm in comparison to the agitation of hers. "I told you to just let it go, didn't I?"

"Whatever's been going on these past few months, I don't like it," Brennan blurted out. "I don't like that I barely see you, I don't like that we hardly have lunch together, I don't like that you don't talk to me anymore. I don't like any of it."

She whispered the last sentence in a vulnerable, confused voice that shook him out of the strange numbness that had gripped him.

"Bones …"

"Stop it!" she pleaded. "Please stop it. I'm sorry you woke up to me instead of_ her_, but I don't want to lose you."

"Her?" he frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"The dream, Booth," she clarified, voice thick with unshed tears. "You said … you said you want the dream to be real, but I … I'm not _her_, I'm not your wife."

"I know, Bones," he said softly, taking an involuntary step forward, the desperate look on her face making _him _desperate to comfort her.

"You said, you could hardly stand to be around me," Brennan whispered shakily. "Is it … is it because I'm not Bren?"

"Oh, Bones, you _are_ Bren," he rasped, finally giving in and crossing the distance, arms wrapping fiercely around her. Immediately, she pressed her face against his chest, breathing him in. "Don't you see? Brennan, Bren, Bones, Temperance … it doesn't matter, _you_ are still everything I want."

"Then why do I feel like I'm losing my partner?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"I'm sorry," Booth sighed, resting his chin atop her head. "I'm sorry I've been distant …It's just that—" he swallowed, voice so soft it was barely audible, "—It hurts, Bones, keeping my distance hurts and I guess self-preservation kicked in."

"I don't want to hurt you," she murmured, fingers fisting brutally against the back of his T-shirt. "I don't ever want to hurt you."

_But you will_, he realized with a bittersweet kind of insight. _You will and I don't even care because it's so worth it just getting to hold you like this._

"I know," he soothed, tenderly sweeping his hands slowly up and down her back. "I know."

"I need you," she confessed hoarsely. "I've never needed anyone the way I need you."

"I know that too."

"But it's not enough, is it?" she asked hesitantly, silent tears tracking down her cheeks without her permission.

"It is for now," Booth decided, tipping her chin up and drying her tears with his lips.

"Don't stay away," Brennan asked and his arms tensed around her at the desperation he could hear in her voice. "Please, don't stay away anymore."

"No," Booth promised thickly, letting his forehead rest on hers. "Not anymore. Not ever again. I promise."

"Can I stay with you tonight?" she asked, voice nearly trembling in utter vulnerability.

Without a word, he picked her up and carried her to his bed, gently taking off her shoes and placing her under the covers. Toeing off his own shoes and exchanging his jeans for a pair of soft sweatpants, he slipped under the light blue sheets with her.

Brennan rolled into his arms, resting her cheek against his chest and letting his steady heartbeat lull her to sleep. His hands stroked soothingly up and down her back in a way she feared was addictive, it seemed _she_ already was.

"Don't give up on me," Brennan mumbled sleepily against his chest and he smiled in the dark.

_No way, Bones_.

She might hurt him, at some point or another. It was entirely possible. But in the end, she was going to make him so deliriously happy, _they_ were going to make _each other_ ridiculously happy and damn, everything else … everything else was just details.

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**a/n: Since it's after midnight, you can consider this the daily update. Though I may, _MAY_, also do a Kissing You update at some point before tomorrow. Reviews always make me happy ::shameless hint::  
**


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